Soft innovation in hotel services: case of Izmir City

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to figure out the impacts of soft innovation in the city hotels in general whereas the focus is on figuring out if there exists a difference in vitality on the components of soft innovation among the hotel categories as 4 stars 5 stars and boutique hotels in Izmir Turkey. Design/methodology/approach The first part is related to a detailed literature review on the soft innovation components as color sound light scent and decoration. Literature review is followed by a qualitative research where expert information on the research topic is collected. Judgmental sampling is used to identify experts' views where in-depth semi-structured interviews are conducted with 12 hotel managers in Izmir city. The soft innovation hotel application areas taken into consideration are: lobby and reception rooms restaurant bar and ballroom areas meeting and congress halls SPA and pools gardens and landscape and other exterior hotel architecture. Findings The findings of the research reveal the sample hotel managers' views as all the soft innovation applications are important for all city hotels regardless of their category meaning that soft innovation may lead to better marketing results. Thus according to hotel managers soft innovation offerings have a potential for better customer satisfaction as positive feedback. However the vitality degree among components changes according to the hotel's category. For boutique hotels the most important component is found to be the decoration of the hotel whereas for 4 stars hotels it is light and for 5 stars hotels it is scent. Originality/value The originality of the study lies in the analysis of the components of soft innovation as a means for effective city hotel marketing and innovative management applications. Though it is a very suitable industry for implementation improvement and development there are limited studies on soft innovation applications in the hotel industry.